Creation of Research Capacities to Increase the Competitiveness of Northern Portugal Agro-Food Companies: Added-Value Co-Products

This proposal is focused on creating the R&D capacities of UTAD, and thus the region, necessary for the development of added-value coproducts from wastes generated by economically-important agro-food companies in the Northern region of Portugal. Firmly based on key National and European objectives we propose a program of activities involving key industries in Northern Portugal that are of major socioeconomic importance (wines, olives/olive oil, fruits, chestnuts, dry fruits and mushrooms). The R&D will lead to simultaneous positive effects on sustainable agriculture, reduction of negative environmental impacts from agro-food activities, new bioenergy resources, creation of new jobs in rural areas, and creating and/or increasing the (inter)national competitiveness of the agro-food and forestry companies. An important part of this proposal is the transfer of knowledge and technological expertise from the Partnering Organizations (PO) via the intensive mobility of human resources (visits by the coordinators in the UTAD team to and from the PO and visits by each of the contracted researchers to the relevant PO); information that is essential to meet the demands of the current proposal and for the future. The activities to achieve the objectives within this proposal are divided into four main tasks: capacities and R&D management (WP1), recruitment of new researchers for optimizing critical mass (WP2), equipment optimization in collaboration with the PO (WP3) and Research Potential (WP4) also in collaboration with the PO. A very important additional fifth task proposal is focused on creating the R&D capacities of UTAD, and thus the region, necessary for the development of added-value co-products from wastes generated by economically-important agro-food companies in the Northern region of Portugal. Firmly based on key National and European objectives we propose a program of activities involving key industries in Northern Portugal that are of major socio-economic importance (wines, olives/olive oil, fruits, chestnuts, dry fruits and mushrooms). R&D will lead to simultaneous positive effects on sustainable agriculture, reduction of negative environmental impacts from agro-food activities, new bioenergy resources, creation of new jobs in rural areas, and creating and/or increasing the (inter)national competitiveness of the agro-food and forestry companies. An important part of this proposal is the transfer of knowledge and technological expertise from the Partnering Organizations (PO) via the intensive mobility of human resources (visits by the coordinators in the UTAD team to and from the PO and visits by each of the contracted researchers to relevant PO); information that is essential to meet the of the current proposal and for the future. The activities to achieve the objectives within this proposal are divided into four main tasks: capacities and R&D management (WP1), recruitment of new researchers for optimizing critical mass (WP2), equipment optimization with the PO (WP3) and Research Potential (WP4) also in collaboration with the PO. A very important additional fifth task (WP5) is the ex-This proposal is focused on creating the R&D capacities of UTAD, and thus the region, necessary for the development of added-value co-products from wastes generated by economically-important agro-food companies in the Northern region of Portugal. Firmly based on key National and European objectives we propose a program of activities involving key industries in Northern Portugal that are of major socio-economic importance (wines, olives/olive oil, fruits, chestnuts, dry fruits and mushrooms). The R&D will lead to simultaneous positive effects on sustainable agriculture, reduction of negative environmental impacts from agro-food activities, new bioenergy resources, creation of new jobs in rural areas, and creating and/or increasing the (inter)national competitiveness of the agro-food and forestry companies. An important part of this proposal is the transfer of knowledge and technological expertise from the Partnering Organizations (PO) via the intensive mobility of human resources (visits by the coordinators in the UTAD team to and from the PO and visits by each of the contracted researchers to the relevant PO); information that is essential to meet the demands of the current proposal and for the future. The activities to achieve objectives within this proposal are divided into four main tasks: capacities and R&D management (WP1), recruitment of new researchers for optimizing critical mass (WP2), equipment optimization in collaboration with the PO (WP3) and Research Potential (WP4) also in collaboration with the PO. A very important additional fifth task (WP5) is the ex-post evaluation for further optimization of the capacities and R&D after the initial three years and to generate a strategic plan for ongoing developments.